Purdue Climate Change Research Center

Study: Environmental policies matter for growing megacities

April 3, 2013

A new study shows clean-air regulations have dramatically reduced acid rain in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea over the past 30 years, but the opposite is true in fast-growing East Asian megacities, possibly due to lax antipollution rules or lack of enforcement.
The U.S. Clean Air Act began requiring regulatory controls for vehicle emissions in the 1970s, and 1990 amendments addressed issues including acid rain. Similar steps in the European Union, Japan and South Korea over the past three decades have reduced nitrate and sulfate in rain - components contributing to acid rain, said Suresh Rao, Lee A. Reith Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and Agronomy at Purdue University.

February 18, 2015

Agronomy professor Ronald Turco, who has served as director of the Purdue Water Community since its inception in spring 2011, has been selected as the new director of the Purdue Global Sustainability Institute in Discovery Park.